​Philadelphia, PA-At 8:50am today, 25 students at the University of Pennsylvania began an occupation of College Hall with three demands. These were:

1) A meeting with President Gutmann2) Transparency regarding the divestment process that took place over the last year3) The release of the shareholder voting plan Penn trustees decided to create in place of divestingStudents are peacefully assembling within the office at College Hall 100 right now and plan to stay until their demands are met. A rally and teach-in hosted by the United Minorities Council regarding fossil fuel divestment and the Dakota Access Pipeline is planned for later today on College Green.

“We are sitting in because we refuse to allow our administration to negotiate in bad faith with our campaign to divest our endowment from fossil fuel companies. These corporations are are disproportionately harming indigenous, poor, and communities of color such as the Standing Rock Sioux through climate change and energy extraction.” said college freshman Nomi Martin-Brouillette.

This action takes place after over two years of campaigning by Fossil Free Penn. Undergraduates passed a referendum in favor of fossil fuel divestment in February 2015 in which 87.8% voted in favor. In November 2015 Fossil Free Penn submitted 48-pages of research explaining why the top 200 fossil fuel companies merited divestment under Penn’s guidelines. In addition, in April 2016 a faculty letter of support for divestment was released; the letter now has 116 signatories. Despite this support, also including rallies and petitions, in September of 2016 the Trustees of the University rejected fossil fuel divestment.

President Gutmann has previously denied Fossil Free Penn’s requests to meet with her. The ad-hoc advisory committee to the trustees on fossil fuel investments was stacked with fossil fuel industry proponents while advocates for divestment were barred from being involved. The public was not even notified the trustees were discussing divestment when the decision was released in September.

“The pre-existing biases of the ad-hoc committee extinguished any semblance of legitimacy. It is shocking that the university would show so little respect for a campaign that has garnered such widespread support” said College Sophomore Zach Rissman.

Fossil Free Penn will be holding strong in College Hall for the foreseeable future and plans to continue advocating for justice on climate change.